This invention relates to brackets comprising both support means for fastening said bracket in a securedly fixed position, and connecting means for the multi-positional engagement of attachment means therewithin, as well as to respective bracket assemblies and bracket systems employing such brackets.
Externally-yieldable support clamps made of metal are well known in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 669,114 relates to a support assembly for telephone receivers. The telephone receiver support is attached to receiver D by a metal clamp in the form of a stirrup C which is externally-yieldable, i.e., open at one end, and moved into tightening engagement about receiver D by using bolt C. Since the clamp is externally-yieldable and open at one end of clamp C, bar B must be indirectly attached to the side of clamp C within socket C2. Thus, telephone receiver is not directly and securedly supported for minimum relative movement.
Similar externally-yieldable metallic clamping devices in which the clamping means is enclosed at the upper end and has an open slot at the support end are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,651,725 and 3,221,743. The entire fixed support for this device is indirect attachment at the side of the clamping structure itself. Indirect attachment limits the amount of support a given clamping device can provide for an attachment means. Furthermore, metallic clamping devices, particularly, such as those set out in U.S. Pat. No. 3,221,743, are quite expensive to manufacture.
Other externally-yieldable clamping devices are formed of multi-sectional components which are open at both ends of the structure. Thus, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,674,538, 1,745,695 and 2,526,070, respectively, clamping devices having separate, substantially symmetrical clamping sections, which must be held together by bolts and the like, are employed to grasp onto bars, tubular bodies, or support arms, respectively. There devices are only as dimensionally stable as the means for holding them together. Therefore, on loosening of the bolts for connection purposes, the entire clamping device becomes dimensionally unstable. In U.S. Pat. No. 1,745,695 a pin 30 is even further provided to maintain arm A in fixed position against rotational movement.
Therefore, a need exists for a bracket system of unitary construction, which includes a fully enclosed dimensionally stable design for connecting an attachment means thereto, and which further includes a mounting portion adapted for direct, maximum support when fastened to an attachment means, such as to a fixed attachment surface.